Enfield Shouldn’t Pay For State Election Errors, Santanella Says

ENFIELD, CT — State Rep. John Santanella is asking the state to reimburse Enfield for the cost of holding a special Democratic primary and for legal expenses connected to the court fight over Thomas Tyler's place on the ballot.

In an Aug. 6 letter to Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, Santanella said Enfield taxpayers should not be required to pay expenses caused by confusion surrounding state election forms, training materials and guidance.

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"Acknowledgment alone does not resolve the practical consequences of those errors," Santanella wrote.

The Sept. 1 primary was ordered after the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed a lower-court decision that had removed Tyler from the ballot.

Put simply, Tyler collected enough signatures to challenge Santanella, but a Superior Court judge initially ruled that the petition paperwork did not meet state requirements. The Supreme Court later overturned that ruling and ordered a new primary to be scheduled.

As Patch previously reported, the original dispute centered on petition forms that were issued before the date allowed under state law and did not include a required section where circulators were supposed to list the number of signatures they collected.

The lower court did not find that Tyler's signatures were fraudulent or that voters had done anything wrong.

Santanella said in his letter that the Secretary of the State's office recently acknowledged that its training materials, election calendar and guidance contributed to the confusion and resulting litigation.

He asked Thomas to work with Enfield Town Manager Matthew Coppler, the registrar of voters and the town attorney to determine the full cost and reimburse the town.

Those costs include running the Sept. 1 special primary and legal bills connected to the lawsuit and appeal, according to Santanella.

"The taxpayers of Enfield, the Democratic Registrar of Voters, nor the Enfield Town Clerk, created nor contributed to that confusion, yet they are now being asked to bear its financial consequences," Santanella wrote.

Santanella said Enfield election officials and municipal employees acted professionally and should not be blamed for mistakes that originated outside the town's control.

"Reimbursing Enfield for these extraordinary expenses would send a clear message from you, the state's top election official, that when government errors impose unexpected costs on local communities, the state is willing to make those communities whole," he wrote.

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